The Indian sugar industry contributes 10% to the country's agricultural GDP, and is a significant part of India's manufacturing base. Although the industry has been the focus of much attention over the years, there remains a lack of case-based studies of its competitiveness. Using data from in-depth interviews with executives in five North Indian sugar companies, we address this gap by applying Porter's theories on competitive advantage, in combination with a technique known as analytic hierarchical process. This allows us to measure and evaluate the industry's competitiveness, and provides a detailed view of the factors that influence it. While this study focuses on the North Indian sugar industry, the techniques used could easily be adapted to the assessment of competitiveness in other sectors to guide practitioners' efforts to improve the competitive performance of their company.
The main aim of this paper is to examine the effect of prominent forces on the sustainable competitiveness of the Indian sugar supply chain with the role of government as a moderator. A survey involving managers working in Indian sugar companies was conducted and partial least square (PLS) method was used to test the proposed research model. The findings supported the positive relationshipbetween suppliers' power and competitiveness; suppliers and industry rivalry; buyers' power and industry rivalry; and government dynamics and competitiveness in the discussed industry. Furthermore, entry barriers exerted a hypothesized negative relationship with competitiveness. The government is working as a moderator between the suppliers' (sugarcane growers') power and the competitiveness of the discussed industry as hypothesized. This study discerns the foundational literature from extant research work; lays down basic underpinnings for contextual discussion on competitive forces in the discussed industry and adds empirical facet by surveying the industry professionals. These findings may draw the attention of incumbents, industry practitioners, academicians, and policy‐makers to the impact that selected environmental forces have on competitive landscape of the sugar industry.
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